


talk to me baby

by sebsap



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Allura (Voltron) Lives, Allura Coran Hunk and Iverson are only mentioned, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friends to Lovers, Gay Disaster Shiro (Voltron), Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Getting Together, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Love Confessions, M/M, No Smut, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Pining Shiro (Voltron), Post-Canon, check notes, i messed with the ages, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28039782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebsap/pseuds/sebsap
Summary: It's been a long day.Trying not to spill his guts about his feelings for Shiro, Lance… spills his guts about his feelings for Shiro.So, yeah. He’s kind of exhausted.
Relationships: Lance/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 48





	talk to me baby

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thanks for giving this fic a chance.
> 
> So, this is set about 2 years after the Galra reign ended, as you'll see that stated a couple times in the fic. And like I mentioned in the tags, I messed with the ages a little. It isn't really mentioned, but Lance is 20, almost 21, and Shiro is about 26. I know that he'd actually be, like, 28, but... I don't actually have much of a reason for changing it. I don't want Shiro to be 8 years older than Lance, I guess. Even though he is in canon. 6 probably isn't much better, either, but I dunno, sorry. I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to publish this because the age difference between them is a little iffy but I'm deciding right now to publish it. I might take it down one day, but we'll see.
> 
> Title comes from the song 'Cake By The Ocean' by DNCE, but doesn't relate to the story.
> 
> Hope you like it! Feel free to point out any mistakes.

It’s been a long day.

Lance has spent the last five hours moving boxes back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth. From the Atlas to the Garrison, from the Garrison to the Atlas, and repeat. He didn’t think that when he agreed to help ‘move a few boxes’ that it would turn into a whole day's worth of activity. He may still be the pilot of the Red Lion, but with everything winding down in the past few years, he hasn’t had many chances to work out or build muscle again. He only flies Red a couple times a week. 

So, yeah. He’s kind of exhausted.

But Shiro is coming this way and suddenly, Lance feels ten times more awake at the hopeful look in Shiro’s eyes and the genuine smile on his face. He subconsciously stands up straighter, pretending to dust his shirt off. Although, it may not be pretending. Those boxes had Lance sneezing so much that he thought he might have a cold. He still might. Lance has discovered that, in the past three-ish years of doing this whole ‘saviour of the universe’ thing, alien planets hold some very dangerous viruses. He’s been on so many planets the past months, still helping out with rehabilitation and the Blades new humanitarian effort--Galra reign may have ended almost two whole years ago, but everyone is still dealing. He’s met so many more new people and been immersed in so many different cultures since everything began that it’s hard to keep track. Anyways, he wouldn't be surprised if he’s coming down with something. Turns out, the human immune system isn’t exactly the best at handling sickness from entirely different solar systems.

Shiro reaches him, and he pulls his mind back from where it had wandered. Even with the smile on his face, Shiro looks exhausted. Lance hopes he can help. “Hey, Lance. Busy day?”

Lance lets out an exaggerated sigh, relaxing his body down onto the bench behind him dramatically, if only to make Shiro laugh. It works. Lance tries desperately to hide his fond smile, but he’s not sure how successful he is. He tries to cover it up with a big, cheeky grin. “Yeah, but it’s alright. I’ve got these huge muscles, so I could carry boxes all day if I wanted to.”

It’s a lie, obviously. But Shiro smiles at him in this way that gets Lance’s heart racing, and he raises his eyebrows in a way that somehow seems fond. Lance is sure he’s just reading too much into it. “Oh, really? So, I can tell Coran that you volunteer to help transport the second load, tomorrow?”

Lance can feel himself go pale, just a bit. He lets out a scoff, rolling his eyes and waving a hand carelessly to try to brush the suggestion off. Shiro is probably just teasing, but Lance would rather not get himself into that for the second day in a row.

He resists the urge to flirt with Shiro, to tell him the truth. To tell him that he’d do it if Shiro was there, being both a physical and an emotional support, keeping him going throughout the day. And, well, being Lance’s eye candy.

(What? You can’t blame him.)

“Nu-uh. I said if I wanted to, remember? I’ve got better things to do,” Lance puts on a smile, one that says ‘duh, don’t you know?’ It’s definitely fake, though. He’s got nothing on his schedule tomorrow. 

Shiro leans back on one foot, popping out one hip slightly and raising his eyebrows at Lance again. He does that a lot--Lance can barely handle it. He’s had a few years to get used to how Shiro makes him feel, though. But, then, Shiro crosses his arms and Lance swears, absolutely swears, that Shiro is flexing his muscles. No one's arms are naturally that… big. Lance’s sure aren’t. (“Yes, Allura, I know I look like a string bean- wait, how do you know what those are?”)

All of that, coupled with the smirk on Shiro’s face, sends Lance’s heart into overdrive. He better not be blushing--he’s not a lovesick teenager, anymore. He’s almost twenty one, thanks. He’s also, like, a savior of the universe, just in case you missed that.

“Oh,  _ really _ ?” Shiro stresses, shifting his weight and squinting. Lance presses his lips together, trying not to smile, and nods firmly. 

“I’m a very busy man,” Lance shrugs casually, trying to hold in a laugh as he looks up at Shiro, who’s standing about two feet from where he’s sitting, through his eyelashes. Lance absolutely loves joking around with Shiro like this--they’ve all been through a lot, but Shiro has been through more. Lance loves seeing him have fun and laugh. It’s like music to his ears, and trust him, he’s got good music taste. 

They hold eye contact for a couple seconds, both obviously struggling to hold in laughter. Finally, Shiro shrugs nonchalantly and looks away absently, staring at something across the room with false interest. “Alright. I won’t ask if you want to go to the mall with me tomorrow, then.”

Lance's face drops in both disappointment and surprise. Then, when he realizes that Shiro is just messing with him, he perks up and grins, although he’s a little confused. “What mall? There’s a mall here?” Before Shiro can even move, though, he adds quietly as an afterthought, “has it really been that long since I’ve been home?” 

Shiro’s shoulders relax, a small smile appearing on his lips. A smile that Lance has a hard time tearing his eyes away from. He does, though, when Shiro steps forward and sinks into the empty space on the bench, right next to Lance. They’re a bit too close for comfort, Lance thinks, but he’s not going to tell Shiro to move. Even if the shoulder-to-shoulder, leg-to-leg contact is making him want to get up and run around in circles like a mad-man. He’d never live that down. Especially with Pidge watching them mischievously from across the room--wait, what?

He doesn’t have time to dwell on that, though, because Shiro is speaking. Oh, right. “Yeah, they just opened it. With all of the activity coming through, people need supplies to be living here. And fun things to do, according to Hunk and Pidge, so they built one a few miles away. It’s meant to be a Garrison-specific mall, one just for those who live in or frequent the campus often.”

Lance didn’t know that, but even now that he does, he’s still confused. Why does Shiro want to spend a day at the mall with him?

Shiro must mistake his confusion for a different question, though, because he waves his flesh hand casually in Lance’s direction. “Don’t worry, it’s just like any other mall. Noisy, crowded, and full of random things that are somehow entertaining.”

Lance likes tired Shiro. Tired Shiro seems to share a lot more thoughts and opinions than he usually does. It’s kind of entertaining.

“Is that why you invited me? Are you saying that I’m loud, Shiro? I am so offended,” Lance overdoes everything, holding a hand to his chest and acting like he’s been mortally wounded by Shiro himself. Lance realizes a second too late that that’s probably a bad thing to think, with the kind of past he has, but oh well. Shiro can’t read minds. Can he?

_ Shiro, can you read my mind right now?  _ Lance decides to test it out. Scientific theory, and all that. Pidge and Hunk would be proud of him right now, if they weren’t whispering dramatically across the room.

Shiro turns to look at him and just stares blankly for a few seconds. He looks exhausted, but Lance is a little more worried about the fact that it kind of seems like Shiro  _ did _ read his mind. It’s a little terrifying.

Lance is about to open his mouth to fill the silence that lasts a couple seconds too long, when Shiro opens his mouth and nods slightly. “Yes,” He pauses, scrunching his eyebrows together faintly. “I think you just proved that.”

Lance guffaws, half incredulous and half extremely amused. He  _ definitely  _ likes Tired Shiro™. Not more than regular Shiro, though. Of course not.

“You’re funny, dude. I like you when you’re tired,” Lance laughs, and then immediately cringes at the way he worded it, and Shiro frowns at him. Lance is sure he’s about to get berated for the accidental innuendo, but Shiro doesn’t say anything about it.

He just sits there. Staring. Silent. Again. Lance is a little… confused, to say the least.

Shiro hums after about a minute, nodding to himself as if he’s made a decision. He slaps his palms to his knees as he stands up, like some sort of dad, and stretches a bit. Lance resolutely does not stare at the strip of tan skin that appears when Shiro’s shirt raises up with the movement. No, absolutely not, that’d be way too cliche. 

“Alright, well. I’m gonna go get us some cold water so we can wake up a bit and hydrate, and then we can go on a walk,” Shiro nods to himself again, not even waiting for an answer before walking off toward the coolers in the back room, Lance assumes.

Lance stares after him in confusion, before shrugging and deciding to just leave it be. Shiro is weird.

He isn’t confused about the ‘going on a walk’ part, though. They used to go on walks every few days, when things weren’t life-threatening, back in the Castle of Lions. It’s slowly becoming a thing again, since they run into each other quite often. Whenever they finish up work for the day, they go on a walk together around whatever spaceship or planet they’re on. They miss a few days sometimes, but that’s to be expected. They’re busy people, most of the time, and even though they still technically work with each other, they aren’t always together. Shiro is still captain of the Atlas, only being recently recruited to help out with what Lance is preoccupied doing; transportation and other humanitarian efforts. (He’d much rather be able to fly around freely, but helping out civilians is just as good, if not more.)

The Voltron crew has all gathered on Earth, though, for a two-week long break. Well, break as in being back on Earth and doing whatever they want. Lance originally thought that he’d try to help out around campus, but obviously that didn’t work out well. If Shiro doesn’t get back soon with those waters, he might fall asleep right on the bench.

(Although, maybe Shiro would carry him to bed if he did that. That’d be pretty nice. Lance does  _ not _ swoon thinking about it, thank you very much.)

Movement directly across from where he’s seated grabs Lance’s attention--It’s Pidge and Matt. It takes Lance a second to tell which is which; he’s tired, and from this distance, they’re basically the same person. He wouldn't be surprised if he was actually just seeing double of one of them.

They stop waving their arms wildly when he finally focuses on them. Lance rolls his eyes so hard it almost hurts; they’re both so scarily similar, but also equally as lame. He thinks he sees Pidge roll their eyes back, but they both start walking over to where he is, so he isn’t sure. He stands tiredly when he notices that they’re coming straight over to him, probably to have a  _ conversation _ . Ugh. Lance loves his friends, loves socializing, but right now, he’s just tired and wants to talk to Shiro and Shiro only.

They reach him just as Lance sees Shiro walk out of the double doors across the room. He’s carrying two water bottles, and something is draped over his bionic arm. Lance can’t tell what, from this distance. It’s a pretty big room--cafeteria-like, but no one uses it for one; it’s basically just storage, right now.

He doesn’t have time to figure it out, because Pidge is talking. “Hey, mom. Where’d dad go? Why’d he leave you behind?”

Lance stares at them with an eyebrow raised, giving Matt a split-second glance, only to see him stifling laughter. He doesn’t even have time to respond before Pidge is nodding in understanding, confusing Lance beyond words, and continuing. “Oh, sorry. Where’d your  _ husband _ go?”

Lance sputters, glad Shiro has been stopped by someone halfway to them. “My- my-”

He, again, gets interrupted--he’s not sure he really had anything to say to that, though--but, this time, by Matt. Lance can’t tell if it’s a blessing, or a curse. “Gross, Pidge. I’d rather kiss Iverson than think of that man as my dad.”

Thankfully, Lance isn’t the only one entirely grossed out by that sentence. Pidge and Lance turn, almost as one, to stare at him with the most judgemental looks on their faces that they can muster.

“What? It’s not like I said I would  _ like  _ to kiss Iverson. I was  _ saying _ -” 

Shiro decides that that’s the time to join the conversation.

A mistake, in Lance’s wise opinion. He looks just as horrified as Lance feels.

Matt catches Shiro’s eyes mid-sentence, and his mouth snaps shut. They hold eye contact for a second before Matt laughs loudly. “Bad timing, Shiro. It’s not what it sounds like.”

Shiro just purses his lips, nodding slowly. Lance sees the corner of his lips twitch up, though. He’s not sure if anyone else noticed. He nods one more time after silent eye contact with Matt, before turning to Lance and holding out the cold water bottle. “Anyways. Here you go, Lance.”

Lance offers him a ‘thanks’ and immediately opens the bottle to take a large gulp. It freezes his throat, but he was a lot more thirsty than he thought he was. He drinks about ¼ of it in one go, which isn’t that much, but his throat is definitely hating him for it. After he puts the cap on it and lets it hang loosely from his fingers at his side, he looks up to see Shiro staring at him with a mixture of concern and- something else. Lance can’t tell what.

Shiro opens his mouth like he’s going to say something, or ask something, but Lance doesn’t get to figure out what because Pidge is talking instead. “Hey, Lance, can I see that?” 

Lance looks over from his staring contest with Shiro and arches an eyebrow. They nod their head toward the water bottle in his hand. He presses his lips together, looking back and forth between the bottle and Pidge. There’s a look on their face that he doesn’t like, but he shrugs. Despite his better judgement, he passes the water bottle over silently. They nod their thanks and take off the cap innocently, so Lance decides that it’s probably fine and turns back toward Shiro. He’s still staring.

He’s about to ask Shiro if he wants to head out, when Pidge interrupts him. Again.  _ Can they stop doing that? _

“Wow, Lance. Look at this, do you see that?” They shove the water bottle under his nose, and he only has about two seconds to think about how painfully deadpan their voice is before they’re squeezing the bottle. Freezing cold water goes up his nose and splashes all over his face and down his shirt before he can even blink. 

It’s really quiet. None of them are even laughing. Lance blinks slowly a few times, tilting his head to look over at Pidge. They’re just smirking smugly at him. The expression on his face must be funny, though, because suddenly Pidge and Matt are dissolving into a fit of giggles.

Lance sneaks a glance out of the corner of his eye to look at Shiro. He looks mortified, and even a little- angry? Lance can’t be sure. Either way, it’s funny, so he snorts a little. “Nice, Pidge. I’ll give it to you, I wasn’t really expecting that.”

Now that it’s fully settled in what happened, though, he’s freezing cold. The Garrison has always kept the air conditioning on, for some reason, so the cafeteria is just as cold as it would be in the middle of winter. The water isn’t making it any better.

Shiro starts moving, though, so he’s distracted from his chattering teeth for a few seconds. He sets down his own water bottle on the bench behind Lance and whatever he had hanging over his arm. Lance now realizes that it was a sweater. He’s a little confused on why Shiro came back from the cooler with that, but he guesses it’s not really a good time to ask. Shiro looks more than a little worried.

“Pidge, why,” It’s not even a question. It’s honestly probably meant to be a reprimand, but Pidge either doesn’t hear it or doesn’t care. They just continue laughing, Matt setting them off again every time they calm down and vice versa. 

Shiro is a little more frantic than Lance thinks he really should be, but he appreciates the worry nonetheless. He takes the water bottle from Pidge, who doesn’t even pause in their giggles, and sets it beside his own. 

Shiro makes eye contact with Lance, and Lance isn’t sure if the shiver that goes down his spine is because of the freezing water or because of the look in Shiro’s eyes. Shiro himself falters for a couple seconds, but it’s gone before Lance can even fully take it in. “I’m gonna go get you a towel. Pidge, clean up the floor before someone slips, please.”

Pidge squawks, finally sobering up, and pouts at Shiro for a second before relenting. Lance straightens a little, smug in the way that an older brother who wasn’t blamed, for once, would be. He takes a moment to realize that that actually isn’t really far off the mark, amusement bubbling out of him as a laugh. It’s probably what makes Pidge flip him off before they walk off with Shiro toward the backroom. 

Matt still looks entertained when Lance turns to look at him. It makes him laugh again, so soon enough they’re both chuckling quietly. 

“Did you know they were gonna do that?” Lance gets out when he’s sobered up enough to look only  _ slightly _ pleased. 

Matt shrugs, a small smirk on his face. “Maybe,” Lance raises his eyebrows at him, not believing the vague answer. It makes Matt laugh again, so Lance drops the act to smile at him. “Yeah, I did. They were whispering about it with Hunk earlier. I’m pretty sure it was Hunk’s idea, actually.”

Lance gasps, unable to tell if he’s genuinely offended or just being dramatic. “I can’t believe my bestest buddy would do something like that to me.”

Matt rolls his eyes, an amused smile threatening to cover the scolding expression he tries to put on. “Weren’t you the one who did the exact same thing to him last week?”

Lance puts a hand out, waving it innocently. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Matt snorts, shaking his head but unable to hide the grin on his face. Lance grins back, absentmindedly sending a glance around the room. He absolutely does not jump when he sees Pidge and Shiro making their way back over to them, closer than he thought they’d be. Definitely didn’t scare him. What does scare him, though, is the furrow of Shiro’s eyebrows and the glare in his eyes that he can see even from the few yard distance between them. Lance’s eyebrows jump up, and he turns to look at Pidge to see if they’re wearing the same expression. Maybe they had a little argument?   
  
Doesn’t seem like it, though. Pidge looks close to bursting back into giggles when they see Lance, soaked with freezing water. Oh, yeah. That’s a thing. Now he’s cold again.

Fortunately, though, Shiro and Pidge make it over soon enough and Shiro is suddenly draping the towel over Lance’s shoulders and patting it down over his shirt and neck like a worried mother. It would be funny if it didn’t make Lance’s neck hot and his stomach start filling up with butterflies. Shiro is always just a tad too close, lately.

Matt and Pidge seem to be able to read his thoughts, but luckily, they don’t say anything about it. Pidge nudges him out of the way, poking at him just to get him to squirm, before laying the towel down on the floor and stomping around on it so it soaks up the water. 

And although Matt is looking more amused by the second, he seems to take pity on Lance’s glowing red face. “Shiro, you might wanna let him dry off his face, first.”

Lance sends a grateful look Matt’s way when Shiro finally steps back and out of his personal space. Not that he minds Shiro being near him, not really. It’s just a little too much for his poor heart. 

If Lance leaves the towel over his face for a little bit longer than necessary, no one points it out. 

He lets out a huff when he finally pulls it away from his cooling face, giving Shiro a bright grin. “Thanks. I’m good, now. We can go.”

He maneuvers the towel so it wraps around his shoulders like a shawl, waiting for Shiro to agree. 

He doesn’t get the chance to, though, because Pidge decides to continue their habit of interrupting. “Go where?”

Lance turns to give them a tired look, knowing from the over-the-top innocence on their face that they’re just trying to screw with him. They snort, looking back and forth between Lance and Shiro. Lance turns to see Shiro’s expression mirroring his, and he has to hold back a snort of his own. “I’m just messing with you. Go on your little date, or whatever.”

Lance is suddenly no longer amused. He coughs, waving a hand in Pidge’s direction as he turns away to grab his water. He can only hope that no one notices the blush on his cheeks making another appearance. “Right, whatever.”

He resolutely ignores the sharp laughter ringing from behind him as he walks toward the hallway entrance. 

Shiro catches up to him quickly enough, and they start off into the hallway. The only sign that Shiro even acknowledged the comment is the red tingeing the tops of his ears. Lance decides not to bring it up, but he’s not sure if that’s for his own good or for Shiro’s. 

They walk in silence for a few minutes, but it’s not awkward. At least, Lance hopes it’s not. That would mean that Shiro is still thinking about the comment Pidge made, which means it probably made him uncomfortable. Then that means that Shiro doesn’t feel the same for him, and that would be really sad because, well, sometimes Shiro looks at him and-

This time, he cuts himself off. He’d really rather not get on that train of thought, especially with the star of said thoughts walking right next to him. “So, what have you done all day, Captain?”

Shiro gives him a playfully reprimanding look, and Lance can practically hear the ‘I told you not to call me that.’ He beams innocently at Shiro, not even bothering to apologize. Shiro, upon realizing that he’s not going to, rolls his eyes and faces forward again. “Fill out paperwork, mostly.”

After Lance waits a couple more seconds, he realizes that that’s all Shiro is going to give him. He resists the urge to roll his own eyes, and tilts his head to give Shiro a pointed look. “Hey, imagine that! Having to do paperwork when you literally lead a whole space team of space people on a giant, never been made before, space _ ship _ .”

“That’s not true, actually,” The only sign Shiro gives Lance that he’s holding back laughter is the quivering of his poker face. “They’re almost done building the second Atlas.”

Lance shakes his head, eyes wider than they were a second ago. “I thought you were about to tell me that you aren’t the captain of the Atlas anymore. Geez, wasn’t  _ I _ the smart-ass, last I checked?”

This gets Shiro to finally break, a light chuckle escaping him. Lance’s heart skips a beat. Not that he’d ever admit it, though. “You still are, don’t worry. Maybe we’ve been spending too much time together, you’re rubbing off on me.”

Lance decidedly ignores the innuendo that could be made of that and haughtily juts out his chin. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. Face it, Shiro, I’m a delight.”

Lance grins cheekily when Shiro turns to face him, one eyebrow quirked in amusement. His mouth is open like he’s about to say something, but when he makes eye contact with Lance, something in his face softens. He closes his mouth, and then lets out a quiet laugh through his nose. “Yeah, Lance. Whatever you say.”

If the sudden change on Shiro’s face didn’t already confuse Lance, the fond tone he used would’ve done the job. For what feels like the hundredth time in the past hour, Lance’s heart starts to speed up and he feels the heat creeping up the back of his neck. It makes him shiver, the sudden heat enveloping him when he was still slightly cold from his damp shirt. 

Luckily--or not, depending on how you take it--Shiro seems to interpret it differently. A frown is suddenly appearing on his lips, eyebrows scrunched and face free from its previous amusement. “Are you still cold?”

Lance waves a hand in his direction dismissively, wrinkling his nose. “Nah, I’m okay.”

Now that he’s thinking about it, though, he’s almost colder than he was when he was still soaked. His t-shirt is damp, and it’s sticking to him somewhat. He’s only made colder by the damp towel around his neck, not drying as fast as it could due to the cold air of the building. He isn’t about to take back his words, though, not when they’re already out and he’s sure Shiro has accepted the lie. 

He must not know Shiro as well as he thought he did, though, because a sweater is being held out in front of him, even as they both continue walking. It’s the sweater Shiro had brought out of the backroom, earlier. 

“Here, I don’t need it,” Is all Shiro says, and Lance turns his head only slightly to make eye contact. Shiro is looking right back, and there’s a few seconds of silence that shouldn’t be tense but are. Lance can’t help but feel like this whole thing means more than it seems. It feels monumental, when in reality, there’s no real reason it should be.

Either way, he relents and breaks the eye contact to reach out for the sweater slowly. The material is soft as he gently takes it from Shiro’s left hand. He knows he’s probably making it more awkward than it needs to be, so he shakes his head a bit as if to take himself out of whatever daze he was in. Time had seemed to slow down for a few seconds.

Lance takes the towel off of his shoulders and bundles it up, handing it to Shiro for a second. He unfolds the sweater, taking a second longer than he really should to stare at it. It’s huge, but he guesses that’s to be expected. He decides to just pull the dark grey cloth over his head swiftly, trying to convince himself that this is normal and that he shouldn’t be freaking out as hard as he is. He hopes his flustered panic doesn’t show.

It’s extremely warm and smells way too strongly of Shiro, so in order to distract himself from his quickly spiraling thoughts, he jokes about it. “Wow, what a gentleman. I’ll have to tell my mom about this.”

The words are out before he even realizes, and he immediately wants to kick himself at the way they sound. 

Shiro barks out a laugh, surprising both himself and Lance. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Lance takes the chance to change the subject, and just goes along with it. He lets out a laugh of his own. “Exactly what it sounds like, man. My mom thinks you’re a loser, so if I tell her about what a gentleman you are, maybe it’ll change her mind.”

Shiro snorts slightly, raising a hand to cover it up as a cough. “I don’t think that’s ‘exactly how it sounds’, Lance. Why does she think I’m a loser?”

Lance can’t stifle the snicker that bubbles out of him at the memory. “I talk to her about you-” He clears his throat, “you guys. I talk to her about you guys a lot.” Nice save. “So, I tell her about all the dumb jokes you make. And one day, she asks me, and I quote, ‘Where do you get all of these jokes, Lance? Aren’t you funnier than this?’”

Lance chortles at the memory of his mom’s words, not even bothering to check Shiro’s reaction. 

He probably should’ve, though, because Shiro is just silent. Lance thought he would’ve at least protested jokingly, but he’s just quiet. Lance looks over at him, a confused smile on his face. It was a mistake. Shiro is staring at him with a soft look on his face, lips quirked almost fondly. Lance doesn’t think about it too hard, though. Ignoring the pounding of his heart, he presses his lips together, tilting his head in a silent question.

Shiro shrugs, shaking his head as if to dislodge the expression. The smile stays. “Nothing, sorry,” A very short pause, and then he practically rushes out the words, “you talk about me?”

It’s very uncharacteristic of Shiro, so alarm bells start going off in Lance’s head. He clears his throat again, mouth suddenly dry. Shiro probably isn’t trying to tease him, but he feels like his secrets have just been spilled for Shiro to pick through. It’s just a bit terrifying, so it’s hard not to stumble over his words. “Yeah, man! Of course- of course I do. Duh, you’re awesome. You’re the Black Paladin, and the captain of the Atlas, aren’t you? Unless that  _ was _ what you were trying to tell me earlier, heh.” 

He tries to joke, to change the subject. It doesn’t work, as Shiro keeps talking about it. “You think I’m awesome?”

Lance makes a strangled sound at the back of his throat, and stutters out some gibberish. He knows that he’s making this worse for himself, but he can’t help it. The back of his neck feels hot, along with his ears and, well, his entire face. He is absolutely refusing to look at Shiro.

“Nevermind that. I just mean that as in you talk about  _ me _ . Not Black Paladin me, or Atlas Captain me,” Shiro says it like a statement, not a question like before, and Lance’s heart feels like it’s about to beat out of his chest. He wouldn't be surprised if Shiro could hear it. 

With his brain going a mile a minute, and his thoughts getting more frantic by the second, Lance does something he’s not super proud of. Trying not to spill his guts about his feelings for Shiro, he… spills his guts about his feelings for Shiro. 

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m in love with you.”

They’ve stopped walking.

The hallway is suddenly stiflingly hot. With Shiro’s sweater-- _ Oh, god, he’s going to be so disgusted that he makes me give this back, isn’t he?-- _ over his damp shirt, he starts sweating. He feels like he’s about to spontaneously combust, a flush probably covering him head to toe.

There was a moment as he was speaking that he made firm eye contact with Shiro, before he realized exactly what he had just said, but now he has decided that he’s fine never looking at Shiro ever again. It would be a little sad and a little difficult, seeing as they work together a lot now, but Lance thinks he could manage. With the embarrassment he’s just put himself through, he’s sure Shiro wouldn't mind. Or maybe he’d handle this maturely, and tell Lance that it’s okay, even though it’s really not because surely Shiro doesn’t feel the same-

“What,” Shiro’s voice seems to ring through the empty hallway. Lance isn’t sure if he means to be, but he sounds a little scary. Like he’s about to maul Lance and hide him in that storage closet behind where he's standing, facing Lance even as he refuses to look up. 

Lance is studying the closet intently, thinking about the possibility of that happening, when something on the cork board hanging on the door catches his attention. It’s a calendar, and weirdly enough, it gives him an idea.

“Nothing! April fools!” Lance laughs, even though it sounds more like a yell. Better than nothing.

He finally gathers the courage to look up at Shiro, squaring his shoulders and putting all of the confidence of a person who just told a  _ really _ good joke into his expression. He’s gotta sell this thing. 

Shiro doesn’t look like he buys it, though. He tilts his head up a little, even though Lance is still shorter than him after all these years, and looks at Lance down his nose. It’s extremely intimidating, and Lance has to take half a step backward. Shiro is both extremely scary when he wants to be, and extremely attractive. Not when he wants to be, though, just all the time. It kind of makes Lance forget what’s happening.

Not for long, though. “It’s June.”

Lance rolls his eyes so hard that his head goes with it, if only to hide the panic in his eyes. He steps back some more, tilting his body so it’s only half facing Shiro. He definitely needed to put some distance between them. “Yeah! Yeah, pfft. I knew that,” He clears his throat, mouth still dry. “I just meant, like, it was a joke. Y’know? ‘Cause, like, I wouldn't just say that, hah.”

More silence. Lance never, not even in a million years, thought that he’d be fine with Shiro rejecting him, but at least that would be better than Shiro saying nothing at all. 

But, then again, maybe this  _ is _ his way of rejecting Lance. At the thought, Lance feels his heart finally slow down. Instead, it sinks down into his stomach. He drags his gaze down from where he’d been staring absently at Shiro, and lets it drop to the floor. He can see his hands fidgeting, and it’s only then that he realizes he’s been crinkling his water bottle and that it’s probably really annoying. He stops immediately. He’d rather not annoy Shiro more than he already has.

Shiro isn’t reacting. He isn’t saying a single thing. Lance knows that Shiro doesn’t believe him, and now he just has to wait and see what happens. Now that his head is clear of most of his panic, replaced by embarrassment and some other soul-crushing feeling, he realizes that Shiro is probably just thinking of how to gently let him down.

He doesn’t have to wait much longer to figure out how Shiro decided to do it.

“Oh, okay,” Lance’s head snaps up, a wild look on his face. Shiro isn’t even looking at him, head turned away slightly and an entirely blank visage. “Makes sense. I was just going to say that I’m in love with you, too,” A pause that doesn’t even give Lance’s brain a chance to reboot. “If it weren’t a joke, of course,” He adds as an afterthought.

Shiro slowly turns to look at him, head tilted down and to the side ever-so-slightly, a coy smile on his face. The only thing Lance can do is stare at him in absolute astonishment. Nevermind the fact that Shiro has just said the words he’s desperately been wanting to hear, he also said it in the most smart-ass way possible. 

With his heart now back to beating rapidly, he lets his shoulder drop from where they had tensed without him realizing. He lets out a heavy sigh, dropping his head, too, and closing his eyes. Shiro is chuckling softly, and although the sound is beautiful, Lance can’t let him get away with it. He opens his eyes, lifts his head up, and smacks Shiro on the shoulder. Hard.

It just makes Shiro laugh harder, though he does bring the opposite hand up to grab at it subconsciously. “Now I can’t tell my mom that you’re a gentleman! Now I have to go tell her that you’re a dick! I was about to combust, Shiro, do you know that?”

Shiro bends slightly at the waist, laughter consuming him. He puts a hand on his own thigh in an attempt to steady himself, but it doesn’t stop the laughter. He speaks through it, though, “you can’t tell her  _ just _ that.”

Lance makes a face, looking at Shiro incredulously. He hasn’t seen Shiro laugh this hard in a really long time, and he’s making no sense.

Shiro seems to catch a glance of the confusion on his face, because he’s straightening slightly to explain. He’s still giggling, though. Shiro. Giggling. Lance thinks he might be in Heaven. 

He lets himself snort one more time before he’s stepping closer to Lance, putting his hands on the outer part of Lance’s upper arms. He seemed like he was going for his hips, but decided against it.

“You have to tell her that your  _ boyfriend _ isn’t a gentleman,” Even when he’s trying to copy Lance’s words, he still doesn’t swear. It makes Lance roll his eyes, before what Shiro actually said settles in. He sputters, leaning back, but not out of Shiro’s grip, to look at his face more clearly. He tries to get out specific words, but all he can do is move his lips wordlessly and send his face through every emotion on the spectrum. 

It makes Shiro smile in amusement, but his expression quickly changes into something more hesitant. “Unless that’s not okay?”

Lance shakes his head rapidly, and since he’s unable to get words out, he lunches forward to wrap his arms around Shiro’s waist tightly. He buries his face into Shiro’s neck, shaking his head back and forth as best as he can when his movement is limited. Shiro wraps his arms around Lance, chuckling quietly above him as he rests his cheek in Lance’s hair. 

“First you steal my smart-ass comments, then you steal my smoothness. What’s next, Shiro? Geez, I can’t handle this,” He mumbles the last part into Shiro’s neck, more to himself than to Shiro. 

Shiro hums, swaying them back and forth slightly. “Your heart, maybe.”

Lance sputters some more, leaning back into Shiro’s arms like a backrest and making a face at him. “You can’t just say things like that! Where’s the Shiro I know and love?”

Lance pauses abruptly when he realizes what just came out, but luckily, Shiro lets it slide. He does look a tad shyer than he did a second ago, though, but Lance lets it slide, too. 

Shiro just shrugs, smiling at him fondly as he continues to rock them side to side in the middle of some random hallway in the Garrison that changed their lives. It’s kind of surreal, if Lance thinks about it. 

“So, was that a yes?” Shiro asks hopefully, making direct eye contact with Lance, almost like he refuses to let Lance out of his sight. 

Lance decides to give him a taste of his own medicine. “Was what a yes?”

Shiro’s eyebrows drop, and he gives him a look that sends a shiver up Lance’s spine. Definitely not because of the coldness, this time. He needs to stop doing that. 

“Maybe if you asked again I’d be able to give you an answer,” Lance gives him the cockiest grin he can muster, tilting his head and holding eye contact. 

Shiro looks to the side absently before pulling Lance in closer, if possible. They’re pressed chest-to-chest, now, and if Lance thought that the contact on the bench earlier was too much, he’s not too sure what to think about now. All he knows is that he doesn’t mind it one bit.

“Lance,” Shiro starts, giving Lance a smile that sends another round of butterflies into his stomach. “If it’s alright with you, would you like to be my boyfriend?”

Lance is silent for a few seconds, just to build suspense, before he gives Shiro a smile of his own. He hopes it conveys his feelings well enough, the feelings of affection and fondness that threaten to burst out of his chest. “Yes, of course.”

Shiro practically beams at him, and Lance knows that he’s probably wearing the same exact expression. 

He didn’t think his smile could get any wider, but then, like the true gentleman that he is, Shiro leans in a little bit and asks, “can I kiss you?” 

Lance doesn’t think he’s ever said ‘yes’ faster in his entire life .

(It’s when they finally continue their walk, some ten minutes later, that Lance remembers what Shiro had asked him, back in the cafeteria. 

“Wait.”

It makes Shiro pause, and he lets himself get pulled to a stop by Lance from where they’re connected by their hands. Shiro raises an eyebrow, head tilting almost subconsciously.

“Were you asking me on a date earlier? When you asked me to go to the mall with you?”

Lance is quickly discovering that Shiro has a tendency to go completely silent when he asks him a question. It’s kind of funny, the way Shiro’s neck slowly turns red as he presses his lips together, like that’ll stop himself from having to answer. It’s an answer of it’s own, though.

Lance practically howls with laughter. “I knew it!” He didn’t. “Oh, my god. Did you think I rejected you?”

Shiro averts his eyes, tugging on Lance’s hand silently as he turns away. It just makes Lance laugh harder, and he can’t help but feel like the tables are turned, now. Good.

Despite his laughter, Lance lets Shiro drag him along to continue walking. Both to keep himself standing straight, and just because he wants to, he wraps his hand around Shiro’s right arm. He keeps his own left hand intertwined with Shiro’s right hand, but wraps his right hand around his bicep. 

“Don’t worry, I’d never reject you. Even though that just proves that you’re an even bigger loser than me  _ or _ my mom thought.” Shiro starts to protest, but Lance just continues speaking like he didn’t hear him. “I didn’t even realize you were asking me out!”

Shiro seems to resign himself to his fate, and settles for just rolling his eyes fondly as Lance keeps rambling on. 

It was a long day, but Lance thinks that if he has Shiro here with him, he could get through anything.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm pretty proud of this fic.
> 
> I know there's probably some mistakes and inconsistencies, both plot-wise and writing-wise, so I'm sorry for that. I only read through it once. I also constantly worry about my characters being OOC, so sorry for that, too. I'm a little nervous posting this, so let me know if you liked it, if you want!
> 
> I might rewrite this, but from Shiro's point of view, so let me know if that's something you'd want.
> 
> Kudos and comments are appreciated, but not required :P
> 
> (Here's some notes about the fic, incase you were wondering:
> 
> 1\. Like I mentioned at the end, Shiro *was* trying to ask Lance out when he asked him to go to the mall with him. He gets all silent and thoughtful after because he thinks Lance rejected him, but just didn't want to talk about it. So he was going to bring it up with Lance later. That's why he just continues being normal with Lance; he figured that he didn't do it the right way.
> 
> 2\. I don't know if it was super noticeable, but Shiro *was* a *little* jealous of Matt and Lance. Since he kind of thought Lance had just rejected him, it hurt a little because he thought, from a distance, that Matt and Lance were flirting. But is obviously a grown adult and friends with Matt so he didn't say anything about it or show it very obviously. 
> 
> 3\. Again, not sure if it was obvious, but during the confession scene, Shiro wasn't *trying* to be intimidating or scary. He was flustered and wanted to know if Lance was being honest or not. So it just came off really bad.
> 
> That's it! Like I said, I might write this fic from Shiro's point of view. If I do that, the stuff above will be explored in more detail and explained better. Thanks for making it this far!)


End file.
